Currently, along with the prevalence of digital cameras, digital image files in large quantities are often handled. For example, a professional photographer or the like takes photos in large quantities using a plurality of digital cameras in a single photographing session. Many users want to rename image files by batch processing so as to manage images in large quantities, and many rename applications are available. In such applications, the user can freely set generation rules of new filenames. Also, many rename applications comprise a preview function of changed filenames so that the user can easily confirm the change results of filenames.
In addition to these applications, various file management applications, each of which comprises functions of creating a new file, copying and moving a file, and the like, have functions of avoiding errors that have occurred during execution of various operations.
For example, as disclosed in a method proposed by Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-296162 (D1), in order to prevent a file from being erroneously erased by wrong overwriting, if a file with the same filename is present at the save destination of a given file, it is checked if they are identical files. If they are identical files, that file is not saved; if they are different files, the name is automatically changed, and the file with the changed name is saved.
The file management applications have various file management methods in correspondence with their purposes intended. For example, according to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-51995 (D2), an identical file number is assigned to an image data file and its associated files, and a set of data with the identical file number are managed as a group of data.
In the conventional application, if an error has occurred during processing such as copying, moving, or the like of a file, it alerts the user to seek confirmation of such error, interrupts the processing, or automatically avoids the error. However, there is no application which detects a situation that may cause an error upon processing or informs the user of the detection result before the beginning of execution of the processing.
In an environment in which a plurality of applications can run at the same time, if a plurality of applications that manage files are launched, errors which occur when different applications rename or move an identical file cannot be prevented.
As described in D2, some digital cameras simultaneously generate a plurality of associated files such as audio data and image data. As described in D2, an identical number is assigned to such associated files, and the files are managed using that number. However, when, for example, the user individually changes a filename, the associated files cannot be managed together, thus posing a problem. Especially, a recent digital camera often simultaneously records sensor data (RAW data) and image data (JPEG data) using the same filename but different extensions. Hence, the aforementioned problem stands out (for example, see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-304484 (D3).